W&G Baird, one of the largest commercial sheetfed printers in Northern Ireland, installed the four-back-four perfector at its Antrim premises last month and it went live yesterday (19 October). The circa-£2m press replaced an eight-year-old 10-colour KBA Rapida 105.
W&G Baird managing director Patrick Moffett said that after the KBA was damaged in a press smash in June, the resulting repair bill led him to believe it was time to institute a change. He opted for H-UV after considering the makeready benefits it would bring and Komori was the only manufacturer that could provide him with a press before Q1 2018.
“For us the elimination of marking issues, which were quite prevalent in the older type of technology, is a big benefit,” said Moffett.
"The first job we put on the H-UV press was 140gsm offset, which we would normally leave for at least 48 hours to dry. As all the other work from our Heidelberg press with conventional inks was on silk paper and still not fully dry, we decided to put the H-UV job on the folders within two minutes of printing. On any other day our folders would have been done waiting for work to dry.”
Printing at up to 15,000sph, the machine, which joins an eight-colour Speedmaster XL 106, has been configured with a number of automation features, including automatic plate loading and spectral scanners. The machine's PDC-SX print density control allows for automatic registration and colour control in one process.
The H-UV drying function eliminates the need for sealing and dries the top of the sheet before turning it over and drying the other side pre-delivery. Moffett extolled the environmental benefits of the curing method and added that even though ink costs have gone up, the rise is mitigated by having two less printing units and savings in perfecting jackets, varnish spray-powder and cleaning and maintenance, along with productivity gains in the bindery.
“We definitely think that the machine will increase capacity for our business. We were maxed out with what the KBA could do and the XL was fully loaded,” added Moffett.
W G Baird’s hefty investment period has seen it upgrade most of its plant, bringing in the Speedmaster, a Muller Martini Bravo saddlestitcher, a KM 600 Kolbus binder, a Magnus CtP system and two Stahlfolder TH96s. Moffett added that he “sincerely hoped” the investment period would be over for now for the £11.6m-turnover 100-staff outfit, which has sales offices in Dublin and Nottingham.
Questioned on the situation with Brexit and the potential for a hard border between Northern and Southern Ireland, Moffett called for stability and said that a hard border would be “challenging” for the business.
Komori also confirmed that W&G Baird was the first to take the machine in the UK and Northern Ireland, but said that Republic of Ireland-based Walsh Colour Print had taken a GLX40RP around a year ago.
